MLK@UNH 2018: Another Try

Last
month, I blogged about the apparent lack of a "celebration" of Martin Luther
King's birthday at the University Near Here.

Apologies, I blogged too soon; although the secretive
application-only
MLK Summit 2018
is still scheduled for February 23-25, UNH's Department of "Community,
Equity, and Diversity" has posted this year's
MLK
Programs & Events.
Lets take a look!

First up, on February 8, is
Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, or just
call him "Rev. Sekou". Let us judge him by the content of his character.
We learn that the Rev "is a nationally renowned
activist, theologian, documentary filmmaker, musician and author who
draws his audiences into thinking about racial, social change." But more
important, he
pushes all the left-wing buttons; for example, in
this 2016
interview
with
Ebony, he's pretty hardcore:

EBONY: You say that neither Sanders nor Clinton are
adequate to respond to the needs of the movement. So is voting
for the lesser of two evils our only option?

OS: I think we continue to lay out a broader
program that looks at the possibilities of a reimagined
democracy. Right-wing populism is ultimately dangerous, but
they’re not the most dangerous. It’s the anemic liberalism that
refuses to take hard positions, including a spineless democratic
party.

Note: from the Rev's point of view, Bernie and Hillary are both
anemic, spineless liberals.

EBONY: If the democratic party is the most dangerous,
how can allies work within the party to root out what you call
the spinelessness?

OS: I’m not much for the discourse around allies. Ruby Sales, the SNCC activist, said, “we don’t need allies, we need freedom fighters.” Until White folks realize that racism, sexism, transphobia, classism—the way in which capitalism limits not only the life chances of Black people and brown people and Native American folks, but that they’re spiritually in danger of ceasing to be human because of White supremacy—we won’t get any real traction in this country.

But as we learned over the past few days, Nigerian immigrants to the US seem to be
doing fine with their "life chances" under capitalism. A tweet from Mark
J. Perry:

Some Data to Ponder Now That Calling America ‘A Land Of
Opportunity’ Is Considered to Be A Microaggression pic.twitter.com/IWvSqlNUQf

It's a mystery, but perhaps maybe they have, as the Rev explains, ceased
to be human.

The Rev is also a backer of the anti-Israel Boycott/Divest/Sanctions
movement; back in 2014, the
Washington
Free Beacon
was set into a small
tizzy when…

The keynote speaker [Rev Sekou] at the Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) national conference, hosted this year at Tufts University, delivered a bizarre, racially charged tirade that drew applause from anti-Israel activists in the audience.

The n-word was deployed, but it's OK to do that when you're the right
color.

Maybe I'll go just for the music. His
website says it is "an
unique combination of North Mississippi Hill Country Music, Arkansas
Delta Blues, Memphis Soul and Pentecostal steel guitar." That does not
sound bad at all, so…

What else is going on? Well, there's "The Truth Telling Project"!

Telling your story can be a radical act.

At UNH, it means opening our community as a listening space for stories
that change the way we see things.

In February, The Truth Telling Collective activists-in
residence (Kristine Hendrix and Asia Dorsey) will live on campus as
educators & organizers to deepen understandings of current issues impacting communities and campuses across the U.S.

Highlight your voice to help create the UNH story on race and social
change. Find the link in the personal story as methodology toward
campus-wide social change. Hear what journey lies ahead as we all work
together for our collective liberation.

In other words, the usual meaningless (but tedious) Progressive
victimology bafflegab;
afterwards, they will wonder why they can't get anyone to take them
seriously.

The "Truth Telling Collective" has a
website where you can
read more, if you can stand it. The abovementioned
Asia Dorsey
has a bio:

Asia Dorsey is a serene, green, radical being. She teaches the art of spreading the seeds of creativity, community, justice and just desserts to anyone brave enough to be themselves. She trades fertilizer with seed activists and stories of future through brown belly-button solidarity. Currently, this whole foods entrepreneur, educator and leader of the Five Points Fermentation Cooperative enjoys her time working with communities around ancestral culinary technology, folk science and dreamwork as a radical framework for the future. Her work is ever cultivating the partnerships needed to create bioregional food economies and medicines rooted in the ethics of people care, land care and fair share. Formally a graduate of New York University, this Colorado wise woman, wakes up every day newly nourished by the power of everyday people, doing extraordinary things. Asia’s organizing experience includes Occupy, Movement for Black Lives and Ecological Justice.

OK, fine.

Finally, on February 21, we have Ron Stallworth in the house. He is now
retired, but back in 1978 he was a Colorado Springs cop who infiltrated
the Ku Klux Klan chapter in that city. And according to his
website: "The irony of this
investigation was that Stallworth is… A Black man." Gutsy move!

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